Nowin its 16th year, the Milwaukee Short Film Festival is dedicated toproviding a showcase for short subjects. The focus was always on Milwaukee, butin recent years programming has assumed a more international character.
“It’sgetting difficult,” says festival director Ross Bigley, speaking to thechallenge of picking from so many selections—especially the local ones fromfilmmakers he has gotten to know personally. Of the 500 submissions for 2014,some 50 made the final cut. “You don’t want to sit through two hours of shortdramas. That would be exhausting!” he says. “We try to have a program thatflows, with both comedy and drama. Part of the process is deciding which filmsare compatible with each other.”
Ahighlight of this year’s MSFF is the Wisconsin premiere of actor Luke Wilson’sdroll quasi-documentary “Satellite Beach,” about a man who thinks he’s incharge of escorting the retired space shuttle Endeavor to its final restingplace. Other films of note include “Billy Balfoor,” directed by Australia’sGrant Wilson from a play by Milwaukee’s Jeff Ircink (which has been performedat Alchemist Theatre). Other technically non-Milwaukee films have Cream Cityties. Milwaukee expatriate Michael Chmiel’s “Clean Break,” a horror parody, wasshot in New York City. Milwaukee’s Jozef K. Richards filmed “A Garden withinthe Violence” in Columbia.
Notableforeign shorts include “Oh My Princess” by South Korea’s Heewok Sa, wherein acabbie gradually discovers that his passenger is having an unsettling cellphone conversation with his daughter; and Baqir Rezaie’s “At a Distance,” adocumentary about a girl growing up in Palestine.
Cappingeach day at the festival is a screening of the lone long feature, Bigley’sZombie Frat House. The film features one hundred zombie extras plus 40Milwaukee actors with speaking parts, including such well knowns as Bo Johnson,Brian Miracle and Dan Katula, and newcomers such as Anieya Walker and KyleBerg. “It’s a cross between Animal House and The Walking Dead,” Bigleyexplains. “It’s made to be a pure genre film. It’s bloody and gory and has a bitof nudity in it. We hope it’s funny.”
TheMilwaukee Short Film Festival begins at 6:30 p.m., Sept. 5 and 12:45 p.m.,Sept. 6 at the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Lubar Auditorium, 700 N. Art Museum Dr.For more information, go to www.mkeshortfest.blogspot.com
